Which Media Player(s) for VL 6

[JohnB316]

In response to this thread from The Lounge, I think it a good idea to discuss which media player(s) should be standard in VL 6. The suggestions are not binding on vector and the devs, who will have the final say, but we are interested in your feedback.

Keep in mind that many players like kaffeine, amarok, kmplayer, etc., use one of the big three players as backends to do the dirty work.

Thanks for your feedback,
John

[Joe1962]

My vote went to mplayer. I used to need vlc sometimes for some broken videos, but mplayer now handles those well. I find myself hardly using xine or vlc any more. Maybe add kmplayer as alternate front-end in the SOHO variant.

[shame]

I hate media players that have separate movie window and controls.
I would have to vote kaffeine for soho and maybe totem for standard.
Of course they aren't particularly lighweight.

[Dweeberkitty]

My first choice would be Mplayer. So far it has supported most everything I've ever wanted to play. Xine is nice for playing DVDs and picking up other files that won't play in Mplayer. I say go with Mplayer, or Mplayer AND Xine. (The second choice is probably better)

[JohnB316]

I hate media players that have separate movie window and controls.
I would have to vote kaffeine for soho and maybe totem for standard.
Of course they aren't particularly lighweight.

Kaffeine and Totem use either mplayer, xine or vlc as a backend for doing the dirty work, so one of them would still need to be in the distro. With that said, kaffeine is not a bad media player at all.

HTH,
John

[hata_ph]

mplayer and xine for non-kde users like me........

[rbistolfi]

I am very comfortable now with mplayer and xine. I use mplayer most of the time, but I think Xine is best for dvds. I also installed vlc for internet streams, so my vote is for the three ones. With the three we can play near to every kind of video files. Would be nice to have a tool for handling codecs, something for knowing wich one is missing when you try to play an "unsupported" stream.

[stoichyu]

I'd have to say mplayer and xine, they both seem to do their jobs pretty well. I haven't tried vlc in linux though, there was nothing that I couldn't already play with mplayer and xine.

[saulgoode]

Would be nice to have a tool for handling codecs, something for knowing wich one is missing when you try to play an "unsupported" stream.

One of the reasons I feel MPlayer is essential is that it provides capabilities far beyond those of just a "player". It is useful for querying installed codecs, containers, and filters (by passing "help" as the argument to the '-vo', '-ao', '-demux', and '-vf' switches), converting formats, capturing thumbnails, testing drivers and configurations, and a host of other uses.

[The Headacher]

Mplayer probably works just as well, but I mostly use Xine and Kaffeine when I can, it just works soo much nicer together with KDE. VLC is nice for transcoding and such, but never really 'rang my bell' as media player.

It should be noted that I prefer a standalone audio player, even though all the above can play audio.

For me, the used combo is usually Amarok and Kaffeine. They both use the Xine engine so that one got my vote.

That being said, I don't really mind slapt-getting me the stuff I need.

[nightflier]

KDE user here. Xine to do the work for Kaffeine and Amarok, Mplayer for browser plug-in.

But of course all of the above in repository!

[shahgols]

XFCE user here because I want to keep my system light...I am using mplayer for everything and it has been able to play nearly every media without problems. 

[GrannyGeek]

I voted for Xine and MPlayer. I use both. I've encountered files that wouldn't play on one but would on the other. Xine will also play audio CDs and MPlayer doesn't seem to offer that option--not that it's a big deal because XMMS plays them, too. I hope XMMS will continue to be included. MPlayer is essential as far as I'm concerned.

I never heard of vlc until saw it mentioned here. What does it do that the others don't?
--GrannyGeek

[kidd]

I think mplayer is the way to go as it's the only of the mentioned that can run in a console, to play music.
It has  gui and a non-gui part, so I can use it as mplayer, and control it fully through my keyboard (mouse is not my friend) without any other interface than the main screen.

Don't know what are mplayer vs others disk/dependency requirements but this would help to make decisions.

[nightflier]

I never heard of vlc until saw it mentioned here. What does it do that the others don't?
--GrannyGeek

VideoLanClient is a very capable cross-platform player. It is one of my favorite apps for Windows. Don't know if it has capabilities that mplayer/xine lack, but like you said, some times one will play what others don't.